Neil deGrasse Tyson: “We Wrestle Because It’s Hard”

“Anyone who has wrested knows that it’s the hardest thing in the world to do. Anyone who says something else is the hardest thing has never wrestled. That’s what I have found. When I think of the frontiers of astrophysics…I don’t do astrophysics because it’s easy. I do it because it’s hard. I juxtapose the two in my mind, body, and soul all of the time. – Neil deGrasse Tyson

As the Romans said, Mens sana in corpore sano: “A sound mind in a healthy body.”

Plato meant “big chest” in Greek, and many of the greatest philosophers actively engaged in physical culture. Socrates himself said, “No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”

Despite being plagued with health problems that few of us could comprehend, Nietzsche enjoyed brisk mountain walks.

Add Neil deGrasse Tyson to the list of brilliant men who believe that neglect of the physical body is sinful and that Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and wrestling are the apex of human athleticism.

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NDT is a class act and straight up hoss. Always has inspiring things to say.

XCSkierBen

Wrestling is dam hard. I tried it for awhile in jr. high and realized I was not good enough for the sport, or probably at that time, I didn’t want to work at it. When I was younger, I only liked things that I was good at such as football, baseball and basketball. I shied away from sports that were tough. Wrestling is tough on you physically and more importantly, it is tough on you mentally. If you don’t train your mind along with your body, you won’t be a complete wrestler. I have seen inferior wrestlers get into the head of better wrestlers and take them down because they understood the mind game of wrestling. It is a tough sport.

Like I said, I did the easier sports as a youngster, then I found cross-country skiing in my junior year of high school. And it was hard, but I had an excellent coach. Contrary to popular belief, it is a very tough sport. Anyone can strap on a pair of skis and shuffle along, but to really pursue it in it’s truest form, in other words, to do it correctly, it is very difficult. It can take years to become a very skilled skier. There is a mental challenge to it as well. A strong will comes in handy when you are long into a race and want to quit at the halfway point. I think most tough sports are ones that train you for life as well.

http://dcllive.wordpress.com/ dcl

This is great. I am a huge NDT fan. I had know idea he wrestled.
I wrestled all throughout high-school. This post really resonates with me. You have inspired me to write a future post on it.
Thanks for sharing. -dcl

http://www.lingogrind.com/ Myles Davis

Ever since starting jits I’ve found more of an inner peace and have been in the best shape of my life. The fusion of raw athleticism and high level thinking that it takes to be successful in jiu jitsu is nuts and something I heard and read about before, yet didn’t fully realize until I started training.

http://www.wellbuiltstyle.com/ WellBuiltStyle

It was Marcus Aurelius (famous Roman philosopher-king) who said, “The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.”

I tend to agree.

Hollentunder

I swear it upon Zeus an outstanding runner cannot be the equal of an average wrestler! -Socrates

John Leopold

This plays perfectly into a concept I’ve been playing with for a while (2 years or so). I call it the Human Trinity: Mind, Body, Spirit. I use to be one of those people who thought that the mind was the most important. Eventually, I tried to take care of my spirit some by getting spiritual, but since I’m not to spiritual naturally, that just messed up my emotions a lot. So, I learned to take care of my spirit without spirituality. Finally, I learned to take care of my body. I’ve always eaten well, thanks to my parents, but I started working out. And I have never been happier. You can get a better idea of what I mean at: http://tri-nab-tu-we.blogspot.com/2013/06/human-trinity.html.
I have always been impressed with NDT. It seems like a lot of these public intellectuals aren’t known so much for their fields of research, but for the vast and varying fields of knowledge. And that they are willing to share their insights with the world is such a great thing.